Asphalt Gods: An Oral History of the Rucker Tournament

This is an extensive review of outdoor summer basketball at the highest levels, it’s players, the cultural significance and impact of the game and finally an examination of a sport contested in its truest sense. If you like hoops or played it at any level a must read

this book gave me so much more information about the great leagues in n.y.c. than i ever imagined...names that were earned from players that never reached the n.b.a. but were just as good and in some cases even better...this is a must have for any basketball fan...put race and color to the side and enjoy this great work of art...

If you ever played schoolyard basketball and loved it in your youth , this is the Bible of NYC street ball

Great book for anyone who has a passion for Rucker Park and the known and lesser known stars that played there

Legends in there time.Or in there minds.Superstars that did not get far.Great storiesof the ballers that played for love of the game.

Great story on the tournament and the players that played in it!

Great book great proce

Having spent a good part of my pre-teen and teen years and early 20s in various playgrounds in Queens, NY as a basketball legend — at least in my own mind, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Asphalt Gods by Vincent Mallozzi.In this book, Mallozzi brings to life again in a very nostalgic and memorable way the inside story of Harlem’s legendary Holcombe Rucker, the playground named after him, and the tournament he created In the 1950s that, over the years, became world famous. In Asphalt Gods, Mallozzi will make you feel that you are right there on the court playing alongside dozens of colorfully nicknamed young men from Harlem and surrounding NYC neighborhoods whose exploits in the Rucker Tournaments, often against multimillionaire NBA superstars, have made them playground divinity/“Asphalt Gods”. A few of the “Gods” you’ll meet (or be re-introduced to) are Herman “Helicopter” Knowings, Earl “The Goat” Manigault, Joe, “The Destroyer” Hammond and Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland; and you’ll get to “see“ how they express their freestyle of “basketball art” against such pro immortals as Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Irving, Walt Frazier, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, CaL Ramsey, Satch Sanders, Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, to name a few.If you, too, are a playground basketball legend in your own mind and/or just a lover of the game, Asphalt Gods is a book I highly recommend to you.

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